The Uganda Scheme was a proposal presented at the Sixth World Zionist Congress in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (B ...

in 1903 by

Zionism Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

founder

Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl; hu, Herzl Tivadar; Hebrew name given at his brit milah: Binyamin Ze'ev (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish lawyer, journalist, playwright, political activist, and writer who was the father of modern po ...

to create a Jewish homeland in a portion of

British East Africa East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa) was an area in the African Great Lakes occupying roughly the same terrain as present-day Kenya from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west. Controlled by Bri ...

. He presented it as a temporary refuge for Jews to escape rising antisemitism in Europe. At the congress the proposal met stiff resistance.

History

British Colonial Secretary

Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually served as a leading imperialist in coalition with the C ...

was aware of the ambitions of the Zionist Organization, which had been on his mind during a trip to East Africa earlier in the year. Chamberlain noted during his trip that, "If Dr Herzl were at all inclined to transfer his efforts to East Africa there would be no difficulty in finding land suitable for Jewish settlers." Herzl was introduced to Chamberlain by

Israel Zangwill Israel Zangwill (21 January 18641 August 1926) was a British author at the forefront of cultural Zionism during the 19th century, and was a close associate of Theodor Herzl. He later rejected the search for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and be ...

in the spring of 1903, a few weeks after the outbreak of the Kishinev pogroms. Chamberlain offered at Uasin Gishu (also spelled "Gwas Ngishu"), an isolated area atop the

Mau Escarpment The Mau Escarpment is a fault scarp running along the western edge of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , ...

in modern

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

(not Uganda). The land was thought suitable because of its temperate

hill station A hill station is a town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The term was used mostly in colonial Asia (particularly in India), but also in Africa (albeit rarely), for towns founded by European colonialists as refuges ...

-like climate and its relative isolation, being surrounded by the

Mau Forest Mau Forest is a forest complex in the Rift Valley of Kenya. It is the largest indigenous montane forest in East Africa. The Mau Forest complex has an area of . The forest area has some of the highest rainfall rates in Kenya. Mau Forest is the lar ...

. The offer was a response to

pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian ...

s against the Jews in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

, and it was hoped the area could be a temporary refuge from persecution for the Jewish people. Chamberlain saw the land as he was passing by on the

Uganda Railway The Uganda Railway was a metre-gauge railway system and former British state-owned railway company. The line linked the interiors of Uganda and Kenya with the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa in Kenya. After a series of mergers and splits, the li ...

, although the land was not in fact in Uganda but in the

East Africa Protectorate East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa) was an area in the African Great Lakes occupying roughly the same terrain as present-day Kenya from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west. Controlled by Britai ...

(modern Kenya). This territory had only recently been transferred from the

Uganda Protectorate The Protectorate of Uganda was a protectorate of the British Empire from 1894 to 1962. In 1893 the Imperial British East Africa Company transferred its administration rights of territory consisting mainly of the Kingdom of Buganda to the Bri ...

to the East Africa Protectorate in 1902, as part of the

development plan. Herzl presented the plan at the Sixth Zionist Congress but it faced resistance from many of the 573 assembled delegates. They considered it a betrayal of the 1897

Basel Program The Basel Program was the first manifesto of the Zionist movement, drafted between 27-30 August 1897 and adopted unanimously at the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland on 30 August 1897. In 1951 it was replaced by the Jerusalem Pro ...

which had promoted settlement in Palestine. A proposal to form an exploratory committee to consider the offer and investigate the land in question won the formal support of the congress but it caused a rift between those who were in favor of the plan and those who were against it. The Russian delegates in particular were unhappy with the plan. "These people have a rope around their necks, but they still refuse," Herzl commented. Shortly afterwards, the British withdrew their offer of land in East Africa.

In fiction

* The story of the 1904 expedition, as well as an imagined vision of a Jewish state in Uasin Gishu, is told in

Lavie Tidhar Lavie Tidhar ( he, לביא תדהר; born 16 November 1976) is an Israeli-born writer, working across multiple genres. He has lived in the United Kingdom and South Africa for long periods of time, as well as Laos and Vanuatu. As of 2013, T ...

's novelette "Uganda", in his 2007 collection ''HebrewPunk''. * Adam Rovner's ''"What If the Jewish State Had Been Established in East Africa"'', a travel guide for the fictional Jewish homeland of New Judea, located in present-day Uganda, won the 2016 Sidewise Award for Alternate History award for short form alternate history. According to Adam Rovner the plan was appealing to early Zionists as it "twinned the adventures of enry Morton Stanley with the adventurism of the Age of Empire, stagecraft with statecraft." * In

's 2018 novel ''Unholy Land'', a Jewish state called Palestina is established in Africa after the 1904 expedition returns a positive report. It was shortlisted for several awards, including the

Sidewise Award for Alternate History The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were established in 1995 to recognize the best alternate history stories and novels of the year. Overview The awards take their name from the 1934 short story " Sidewise in Time" by Murray Leinster, in ...

, and builds on the author's earlier story, "Uganda".

References

Bibliography

* {{cite book, first=Adam, last=Rovner, title=In the Shadow of Zion: Promised Lands Before Israel, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ej_UBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA45, date=2014, publisher=NYU Press, isbn=978-1-4798-1748-1

External links

Jewish Virtual Library on Uganda Proposal
East Africa Protectorate Uasin Gishu County History of Kenya History of Zionism History of the Jews in Africa Settlement schemes Proposed countries Proposed Jewish states Jewish Ugandan history Jewish Kenyan history

History

In fiction

See also

References

Bibliography

External links